Lotus have announced that Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen will race for them as they take the famous marque back into Formula One.
Trulli and Kovalainen to race for Malaysian-backed outfit in 2010
Lotus have announced that Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen will race for them next season - the Malaysian-backed outfit's first on the Formula One grid.
Italian veteran Trulli joins from the now defunct Toyota team while Finland's Kovalainen moves from McLaren, where he is to be replaced by World Champion Jenson Button.
The team's third driver will be Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy.
"The appointment of Jarno, Heikki and Fairuz as our race drivers is a testament to the quality of our team, to our ambition and drive, and above all to our long-term vision of success in Formula One," team principal Tony Fernandes said.
Trulli, who will be embarking on his 14th F1 season in 2010, said he hoped his experience would be a boost for the fledgling outfit and said their goal was to be the most successful of the new teams.
"We have to set realistic targets for the first year," he told the official Lotus F1 website.
"We are one of the new teams, so we have to prove ourselves and to gain respect in the paddock. We have to establish ourselves as the best of the new teams and see what gap we have between us and the rest.
"Only then will we really understand what gains we need to make during the season. The points system has changed to reward the top 10 drivers, so I would like to see us making progress towards the top 10 by Abu Dhabi.
"But we should not underestimate the task in hand. Formula One in 2010 is an exciting prospect with brand new teams, established manufacturers fighting back and of course other young teams looking to repeat their 2009 success.
"Everyone will be fighting hard for results, but we still have all our foundations to set, so we have a lot to do."
Potential
Kovalainen, who made his F1 debut for Renault in 2007, stressed that the presence of Mike Gascoyne as chief technical officer and Air Asia founder Fernandes were key to his decision to sign.
"For me there were a couple of major factors - Tony and Mike being the two leading figures in the project, and the backing behind the team were both very important," he said.
"Having spoken to both of them I became aware that the whole operation has a lot of potential, and a very good chance of being a successful team in the future.
"I saw Lotus F1 Racing as the best choice for me to progress my career, after considering several other options that were available to me.
"I have visited the base of the team, as well as meeting Tony and Mike, and I can see that everyone involved is very motivated, excited and happy to be pushing this programme forwards.
"The team has ambitious plans for the future and everyone will see Lotus F1 Racing in Bahrain GP as a professional, competitive yet very humble group of intelligent individuals."
The team, who are reviving one of the most famous marques in the sport's history, gained a place on next year's grid after BMW announced that it was withdrawing from the sport.
They took the place of BMW Sauber but the latter outfit, reverting to the Sauber name, gained their place back after Toyota's subsequent decision to pull out.
Lotus are backed by a public-private partnership involving a string of top Malaysian entrepreneurs as well as national automaker Proton, which bought the English sportscar manufacturer in 1994.
Progress
Team CEO Riad Asmat said the team were making good progress in getting their car ready for the 2010 season.
"Mid-January we are getting the build of the car ready and by mid-February the vehicle will be tested in the UK and will then be ready for shipping to Bahrain," he said.
"We have the first race in March 2010 in Bahrain, the second in Australia and the third in Malaysia."
Lotus join USF1, Campos and Virgin Racing as one of four new teams to race Formula One next year.
